Alteration
by Deandra
Summary: Eomer struggles with a major change in his life. ONESHOT. Part 84 of the Elfwine Chronicles.


_**Part 84 of the Elfwine Chronicles. The Elfwine Chronicles are a series of one-shots built around the family group of Eomer, Lothiriel and Elfwine. The total number will depend on how many ideas I get for new vignettes.**_

_**A/N: By request, for spiritstllionofthecimarro, who is struggling with something similar just now.**_

**Alteration**

**(Apr, 42 IV)**

Eomer's scowl deepened, and the drone of his advisers became an indistinguishable blur in his ears. It wasn't fair. Why did things have to change? Was he so hard to get along with? Was he the reason for this? Did anyone even care how he would be affected by the change?

He suddenly became aware that all eyes were upon him and the room had fallen silent. In other circumstances, he might have blushed in embarrassment, but at the moment he found it hard to care about their petty squabbling. With a note of annoyance tinging his voice, he rose and dismissed them, "I am sorry, gentlemen, but I have pressing matters I must attend to just now. We will reconvene at another time."

Before anyone could argue the point, he strode from the room and made for Lothiriel's garden. Perhaps the solitude and beauty there would help soothe his spirit.

Yet an hour later, he had found no peace and the matter still preyed upon his mind. He was not surprised when a quiet voice spoke behind him, but it did not belong to the person he had expected to come looking for him.

"Eomer, if it truly troubles you so very much, I will stay on." Eothain moved over to stand beside where Eomer stared out into the distance. Their shoulders lightly brushed against one another.

For most of their lives, they had been virtually inseparable. The first time they had met, an argument ended in a fistfight, and they both sported black eyes and bruises from the altercation, but they thrashed out their differences, and forged the beginning of a friendship that had seemed to grow stronger almost daily. They had trained together, served together, fought together, wept together, laughed together; but mostly they had understood one another in a way that no one else seemed able to fathom. When Eomer had been made Third Marshal of the Riddermark, there had never been any question who would be his Second in command. Who else but Eothain would he choose to be the Captain of the King's Guard, and protector of his family?

"No," Eomer replied, sighing heavily, "that is not fair to you, and I am being selfish. But you have stood beside me for so long, it will feel strange not having you there."

A hand came to rest on his shoulder and his friend responded quietly, "I am not dying and I am not leaving Edoras, you great oaf! I will still be around to cause trouble and give you bad advice, to everyone's chagrin!"

Eomer didn't need to turn to know there was a twinkle in those blue eyes, and he could not restrain a chuckle. "Lothiriel will be _relieved_ to know that, I am sure!" He turned to eye the other man, "I will miss you though, and you know I envy you this. Would that kings could step down from _their_ duties and live a life of leisure when they grew old enough. Mind you do not drive your lovely wife to distraction by being underfoot all the time. If you do, she will complain to _my_ wife and I will have to hear about it!"

Eothain let out his usual hearty laugh and exclaimed, "Well, there is nothing to be done for it then! When she gets weary of me being about, I will come visit the king. He can turn business over to his fine heir and we will go off and get into mischief together, just like in the old days." Then sobering slightly, he added, "I vow to you, Eomer, our friendship will not end once I leave the King's Guard. We may not see one another quite so often, but you will always be my brother of the heart. Do not ever doubt that."

Eomer nodded, a modicum of peace finally settling on him. Turning back toward the horizon, Eothain did likewise, and the pair stood in silence, enjoying an early spring sunset, side by side, as usual.

THE END

6-8-06

_**End note: It is not essential that you read the Elfwine Chronicles in the order they were written, but there is an advantage to doing so. The more of them that I wrote, the more likely I was to make reference to one of the previous ones and something that happened there. If you want to read them in order, go to the top of this page and click on my name (Deandra). That will take you to my profile page. Scroll down and you will find all the stories I have written. The Elfwine Chronicles are in order from bottom to top since ffn shows them in the order they were posted. A few were posted out of number order (#15 came after #17, I think), but you can read them in posting order or number order since those few won't be affected in the story content.**_


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